Following after the new legislation with the new system of buying a property as a Foreign but European citizen in our own name and not as a company, there is more work with buying a car.

Some friends of ours bought a car over four weeks ago and have still not been able to drive it! Surprised, well don't be, because the new system appears to be a long drawn out process. Under the old system you could buy a car if you owned a company and drive it away that day with very little problem. Under the new system you have to have a Visa with your picture on it which carries a personal number. The alternative to this is to acquire your white Visa and then fill in a form at the KAT office and wait a further week to collect the form before going through the rest of the system with Mot etc. It sounds confusing and as a new foreigner in BG you need a friend who speaks Bulgarian to guide you through it all.

Failure to have this Visa or the form submitted and returned to you means you cannot insure the car and therefore you cannot satisfy the criteria to have the car in your name and have the registration plates changed. Our friends car dealership were unaware of the new system with foreign buyers and thought that the car could simply be driven by the new owners after obtaining the white Visa and the MoT and changing the registration plates together with the insurance. Maybe the BG government will make it easier sometime in the not too distant future, but until then that is the situation.

Can you still do it the other quicker way if you have a company?

ohhhhhhh sounds complicated Itchy

I think you will find the "
visa "
as you call it , is the Lichna Card....the normal ID card with photo passport number personal number etc on it.....this is not a new system ..if one has got a L/C one could always have bought a car in their own name...although this was not common knowledge
in fact no one is supposed to be able to do this without having a L/C....hence buying it threw a company... who ever sold it to your friends is in effect doing this threw the back door...stupid

we bought our last car in our personal name, not the company. the litchna card is what is needed, this card is your residential status, therefore, you are a resident foreigner as such, but have the same rights as a bulgarian. buying a car in your personal name through the notary took us one hour to complete, plates changed and insured.
it was straighforward, so i dont fully understand why your friends had problems. unless there is something im not aware of.

starlite wrote:

we bought our last car in our personal name, not the company. the litchna card is what is needed, this card is your residential status, therefore, you are a resident foreigner as such, but have the same rights as a bulgarian. buying a car in your personal name through the notary took us one hour to complete, plates changed and insured.
it was straighforward, so i dont fully understand why your friends had problems. unless there is something im not aware of.

We had exactly the same. Car registered insured and on the road in about an hour

it always takes a while to understand the system in bulgaria. the only difference now, is people will not have buisnesses, so they wont have the bulsat card which is your purchasing card for your buisness. now you will have the litchna cartna card so you can purchase in your name rather than in the buisness name. so you need the card before you can purchase. hope this makes sense. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

my car &
van are in my own name we went to the notory with the seller they needed to see my passport &
lichna karta then gave me a document to take to KAT to get the new registration documents in my name it didnt take too long just a few hours, but the registration documents [talon] run out on the same date as my lichna carta, so it will have to be renewed when we renew the lichna kartas.

itchyfeet wrote:

Following after the new legislation with the new system of buying a property as a Foreign but European citizen in our own name and not as a company, there is more work with buying a car.

Some friends of ours bought a car over four weeks ago and have still not been able to drive it! Surprised, well don't be, because the new system appears to be a long drawn out process. Under the old system you could buy a car if you owned a company and drive it away that day with very little problem. Under the new system you have to have a Visa with your picture on it which carries a personal number. The alternative to this is to acquire your white Visa and then fill in a form at the KAT office and wait a further week to collect the form before going through the rest of the system with Mot etc. It sounds confusing and as a new foreigner in BG you need a friend who speaks Bulgarian to guide you through it all.

Failure to have this Visa or the form submitted and returned to you means you cannot insure the car and therefore you cannot satisfy the criteria to have the car in your name and have the registration plates changed. Our friends car dealership were unaware of the new system with foreign buyers and thought that the car could simply be driven by the new owners after obtaining the white Visa and the MoT and changing the registration plates together with the insurance. Maybe the BG government will make it easier sometime in the not too distant future, but until then that is the situation.

How did you get on with this Itchy any further updates??

He's probably still reading through all the paperwork

Andy wrote:

He's probably still reading through all the paperwork

Fab!!!

funny

oddball wrote:

itchyfeet wrote:

Following after the new legislation with the new system of buying a property as a Foreign but European citizen in our own name and not as a company, there is more work with buying a car.

Some friends of ours bought a car over four weeks ago and have still not been able to drive it! Surprised, well don't be, because the new system appears to be a long drawn out process. Under the old system you could buy a car if you owned a company and drive it away that day with very little problem. Under the new system you have to have a Visa with your picture on it which carries a personal number. The alternative to this is to acquire your white Visa and then fill in a form at the KAT office and wait a further week to collect the form before going through the rest of the system with Mot etc. It sounds confusing and as a new foreigner in BG you need a friend who speaks Bulgarian to guide you through it all.

Failure to have this Visa or the form submitted and returned to you means you cannot insure the car and therefore you cannot satisfy the criteria to have the car in your name and have the registration plates changed. Our friends car dealership were unaware of the new system with foreign buyers and thought that the car could simply be driven by the new owners after obtaining the white Visa and the MoT and changing the registration plates together with the insurance. Maybe the BG government will make it easier sometime in the not too distant future, but until then that is the situation.

How did you get on with this Itchy any further updates??

Sorry that I have been so long responding to some of your replies, we are busy doing DIY and it has now reached fever pitch in what we are doing!!

Our friends have indeed gone through the very complicated procedure to obtain their car, unfortunately I have very little information apart from the fact that they got their Lichna Carta (did I spell that right?). They then went to the KAT office in Veliko Tarnovo and filled in a form and waited a week before going back and spending 4 and a half hours going from person to another and finally emerging with their new number plate. It was very complicated and their Stop Press news was that the BG government have now brought out a new procedure with new rules and regulations for Euro citizens to obtain and legally drive a car in BG. Does anyone have news on the new rules and what has to be done.


We still have to go through the same procedure with our car which is being driven with a Power of Attorney at the moment.

:: ::

like many others have commented we bought our car last year without having a company. as we were only renting at the time we didn't need to have a company. but as i recall it only took a few hours and there were no complications at all. and we have since changed cars without any problems so who knows whats going on eh.

Anybody got any updates on this one?